EC Paediatrics

Child victimization is a global public health challenge, jeopardizing the healthy development of millions of children every day. The radKIDS^® Personal Empowerment and Safety Education Program is a school-based child victimization prevention program developed in the United States to respond to comprehensive child behavioral safety skill training needs. To support implementation fidelity for broad-scale dissemination, we adapted the current radKIDS^® in-person training model into a blended learning, web-based multimedia technology training program called radKIDS2.0. We conducted a preliminary evaluation of radKIDS2.0 to assess pre-post changes in self-efficacy in teaching radKIDS2.0 and radKIDS2.0 instructor knowledge, as well as program usability, acceptability, satisfaction and fidelity. We found a large effect size evident for the increase in instructor scores for self-efficacy towards radKIDS2.0 instruction and radKIDS2.0 knowledge from pre to post-program timepoints (η² = 0.20; η² = 0.17, respectively). The overall sample means for usability, acceptability, and satisfaction using a 5-point scale, were 3.97 (SD = 0.56), 4.01 (SD = 0.79), and 4.2 (SD = 0.83), respectively. Average fidelity scores were 3.7 out of 5. This study found that eLearning instructor training via radKIDS2.0 appeared to be a viable, feasible, and usable alternative to the current in-person radKIDS^® training.

 Keywords: Child Victimization; Prevention; Child Safety Planning; School-Based Program; Peer Interaction; Child Mental Health

1. Hashima PY and D Finkelhor. “Violent victimization of youth versus adults in the National Crime Victimization Survey”. Journal of Interpersonal Violence8 (1999): 799-820.
2. Finkelhor D. “Developmental victimology”. Victims of Crime 3^rd Edition (2007): 9-34.
3. Margolin G and EB Gordis. “Children's exposure to violence in the family and community”. Current Directions in Psychological Science 4 (2004): 152-155.
4. Hanish LD and NG Guerra. “A longitudinal analysis of patterns of adjustment following peer victimization”. Development and Psychopathology1 (2002): 69-89.
5. Sourander A., et al. “Persistence of bullying from childhood to adolescence—a longitudinal 8-year follow-up study”. Child Abuse and Neglect 7 (2000): 873-881.
6. Kochenderfer BJ and GW Ladd. “Peer victimization: Cause or consequence of school maladjustment?” Child Development4 (1996): 1305-1317.
7. Basch CE. “Aggression and violence and the achievement gap among urban minority youth”. Journal of School Health 10 (2011): 619-625.
8. Finkelhor D., et al. “Youth exposure to violence prevention programs in a national sample”. Child Abuse and Neglect4 (2014): 677-686.
9. Boulton MJ and L Boulton. “Modifying self-blame, self-esteem, and disclosure through a cooperative cross-age teaching intervention for bullying among adolescents”. Violence and Victims4 (2017): 609-626.
10. Yeager DS., et al. “Declines in efficacy of anti-bullying programs among older adolescents: Theory and a three-level meta-analysis”. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 37 (2015): 36-51.
11. Jiménez-Barbero JA., et al. “Effectiveness of anti-bullying school programs: A meta-analysis”. Children and Youth Services Review 61 (2016): 165-175.
12. Ttofi MM and DP Farrington. “Effectiveness of school-based programs to reduce bullying: a systematic and meta-analytic review”. Journal of Experimental Criminology1 (2011): 27-56.
13. Gaffney H., et al. “Evaluating the effectiveness of school-bullying prevention programs: An updated meta-analytical review”. Aggression and Violent Behavior 45 (2019): 111-133.
14. Bradshaw CP. “Translating research to practice in bullying prevention”. American Psychologist4 (2015): 322-332.
15. Brown EC., et al. “Outcomes from a school-randomized controlled trial of steps to respect: A bullying prevention program”. School Psychology Review 3 (2011): 423-443.
16. Catalano RF., et al. “Raising healthy children through enhancing social development in elementary school: Results after 1.5 years”. Journal of School Psychology2 (2003): 143-164.
17. Kellam SG., et al. “The course and malleability of aggressive behavior from early first grade into middle school: Results of a developmental epidemiologically‐based preventive trial”. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry2 (1994): 259-281.
18. Low S., et al. “Promoting social–emotional competence: An evaluation of the elementary version of Second Step^®”. Journal of School Psychology6 (2015): 463-477.
19. Gottfredson G., et al. “An experimental outcome evaluation of the Second Step elementary universal prevention program: Technical report” (2010).
20. Olweus D. “A useful evaluation design, and effects of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program”. Psychology, Crime and Law4 (2005): 389-402.
21. OSEP Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions., et al. “Applying positive behavior support and functional behavioral assessment in schools”. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions3 (2000): 131-143.
22. Olweus D and FD Alsaker. “Assessing change in a cohort-longitudinal study with hierarchical data” (1994).
23. Limber SP., et al. “Evaluation of the Olweus Bullying Prevention Program in a large scale study in Pennsylvania”. Unpublished report (2012).
24. Li KK., et al. “Effects of the Positive Action programme on problem behaviours in elementary school students: A matched-pair randomised control trial in Chicago”. Psychology and Health2 (2011): 187-204.
25. Kärnä A., et al. “A large‐scale evaluation of the KiVa antibullying program: Grades 4-6”. Child Development1 (2011): 311-330.
26. Kärnä A., et al. “Going to scale: A nonrandomized nationwide trial of the KiVa antibullying program for grades 1-9”. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology6 (2011): 796-805.
27. Kärnä A., et al. “Effectiveness of the KiVa antibullying program: grades 1-3 and 7-9”. Journal of Educational Psychology2 (2013): 535.
28. Musu-Gillette L., et al. “Indicators of school crime and safety: 2016 (NCES 2017-064/NCJ 250650)” (2017).
29. Johnson-Shelton D., et al. “Program evaluation of the radKIDS^® youth personal empowerment safety education program”. Journal of Child and Adolescent Trauma 17 (2024): 831-848.
30. Poche C., et al. “Teaching self‐protection to young children”. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis2 (1981): 169-175.
31. Johnson BM., et al. “Evaluation of behavioral skills training for teaching abduction‐prevention skills to young children”. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis1 (2005): 67-78.
32. Ledbetter-Cho K., et al. “Behavioral skills training to improve the abduction-prevention skills of children with autism”. Behavior Analysis in Practice3 (2016): 266-270.
33. Bandura A. “Guide for constructing self-efficacy scales”. Self-Efficacy Beliefs of Adolescents1 (2006): 307-337.
34. Brooke J. “SUS-A quick and dirty usability scale”. Usability Evaluation in Industry194 (1996): 4-7.
35. Elliott S and M Treuting. “The behavior intervention rating scale: Development and validation of a pretreatment acceptability and effectiveness measure”. Journal of School Psychology1 (1991): 43-51.
36. Customer Satisfaction Survey (2023).
37. Rupere T and M Jakovljevic. “Usability and user evaluation of an integrated multimedia e-learning management system”. Knowledge Management and E-Learning3 (2021): 334-366.
38. Soneson E., et al. “Feasibility of school-based identification of children and adolescents experiencing, or at-risk of developing, mental health difficulties: a systematic review”. Prevention Science5 (2020): 581-603.
39. Kennedy SG., et al. “Implementation at‐scale of school‐based physical activity interventions: A systematic review utilizing the RE‐AIM framework”. Obesity Reviews7 (2021): e13184.
40. Brenick A., et al. “Empowering children with safety-skills: An evaluation of the Kidpower Everyday Safety-Skills Program”. Children and Youth Services Review 44 (2014): 152-162.